With his father's name "Thomas" and his grandmother being born "Mitchell" there were very good family reasons for his name being what it was. All the same his parents must have been very aware of the explorer Thomas Mitchell who had mapped Victoria's Western district ten years before and who just before Thomas' birth had carried out similar exploits in western Queensland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mitchell). It is interesting too that a cousin born in the colony in 1847 to John William Felstead and his wife Jane, Thomas Hale senior's sister, was also named "Thomas Mitchell".

There seems to be no surviving record of Thomas Mitchell Hale's birth nor can I find those of his brothers John or Samuel. The births of his sisters in 1844 and 1846 were recorded on the same day in 1846 so it seems that father Thomas, even though eventually to become a Registrar of Births, may have been a bit lax when it came to registering his own children.

When Thomas died he was managing director of Dudgeon and Arnell P/L and he had worked for the company for 45 years. He joined the original company, Owen, Dudgeon & Arnell, in the early 1860s. His life was summed in a 1909 obituary. ".....In the tobacco trade, and we may add the storekeeping trade, there was no better known tobacco man than Mr Hale.............Under a somewhat rough exterior, Mr Hale concealed a good, kind heart as many businessmen and others can testify today, for many have lost a genuine friend. He was of retiring disposition, and taking no part in public affairs, was satisfied to concentrate all his energies upon direction of business and home......."

He must have joined the company at about age 15 in about 1864. This was a time when his father's fortunes had reversed dramatically. By 1866 Thomas senior had lost his property, dissolved his business, defended charges of unethical practice in his profesion as architect, given up his political ambitions and moved to Daylesford as a public servant. Thomas Mitchell would have been witness to all of this as an adolescent and it must have left its mark. In 1870 his mother died. In December 1871 he married Annie Eliza Hayball and a few months later his father married Frances Moore, just out from Dublin and barely older than Thomas Mitchell.

Thomas and Annie had four children, three girls and a boy, Thomas Robert, born in January 1876. In March 1876 their youngest girl Elizabeth Henrietta died from what was described as "disease of the spine" and "congestion of brain" (maybe meningitis?). This condition had lasted at least 3 months from before the birth of Thomas Robert. Two months later Annie died from an infection. Within six months, Thomas Robert, then barely a year old, was dead as well from a lung infection.

A year or so later Thomas Mitchell married Annie's older sister Elizabeth Hayball and together they raised the two surviving girls, my great grandmother Caroline Mary and her sister Annie Bertha. It's not hard to understand why Thomas Mitchell was of a "retiring disposition" and concentrated "all his energies upon direction of business and home".

The tragedies in this family were not over with Annie Bertha dying from a miscarriage in 1904. His only remaining child, Caroline Mary, was thousands of miles away in Collie and with the possible exception of one brief visit was to remain there until after his death at only 61 in 1909.

MISC: Witness at marriage Patrick S Keleher and Harriet Bailey, Feb 1866, "House of W. Keleher, William St, Melbourne". 10(Harriet was the step daughter of Thomas' uncle William Hale who was likely seperated from Harriet's mother and living in Auckland in 1866. Note that Patrick Keleher died in Auburn Rd in 1886)

He may have been at this address for some years but the first record is from the time of daughter Caroline Mary's birth in September 1871. He is first listed in the directory at Rosslyn Street as "Hale T" in 1873 and the following year as "T M Hale" at number 24. The later entry may already have out of date by the time the 1874 directory was published with Thomas giving his address in January of that year as New St, Brighton (probably Robert Hayball's house). By November at the time of Elizabeth's birth he was at 125 Lonsdale Street.

It seems very likely that his house is still standing. From the directories, his address was the first on the city side of Rosslyn Street down from King towards Spencer. In 2007 there are a pair of early cottages in this position. Everything points to the one on the left being number 24 in the 1870s. The only listing closer to the corner is that for a blacksmith likely in the yard of the corner house facing King Street and now replaced by the grey office building in the photograph.

There is a possibility that Thomas lived with his father's former partner James Robertson in Rosslyn Street, possibly taking over the house later. who is listed there in 1870. There seem to be some problems with the Rosslyn St directory entries for the early 1870s but they do indicate that Robertson lived within a few houses of number 24.

Two or three doors down the street was Dixon's Aerated Waters. The scene in this photo from the late 1860s was almost certainly familiar to Thomas.

This 1867 photograph was taken a couple of hundred metres from looking across the Flagstaff

He worked as a Tobacco Manufacturer in Oct 1900 and resided at Melbourne, Australia. 17

He worked as a Manager in Mar 1904 and resided at Melbourne, Australia. 18

He worked as a Managing Director, Dudgeon and Arnell P/L before 4 Dec 1909 and resided at Melbourne, Australia. 8

He had an estate probated Argus (6,820 pounds) on 14 Mar 1910 in Melbourne. 19

Thomas married Annie Eliza Hayball, daughter of Robert Hayball and Eliza Thompson, on 16 Dec 1871 in New St, Brighton.1 (Annie Eliza Hayball was born on 3 May 1848 in Brighton, Melbourne, Australia 202122 and died on 8 Jun 1876 in 125 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 23.)

Thomas next married Elizabeth Hayball, daughter of Robert Hayball and Eliza Thompson, on 8 Aug 1877 in Congregational Church, Black St, Brighton.2 (Elizabeth Hayball was born on 10 Aug 1846 in Brighton, Melbourne, Australia 242526 and died on 16 Mar 1932 in Malvern East 272829.)